PJE's Booker Blog

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Vegetarian Takes The Cake

The Man Booker International Prize for 2016 has been awarded to South Korean author Han Kang for her novel The Vegetarian. Translator Deborah Smith shares the £50,000 prize.

Originally published as three separate stories, The Vegetarian tells the story of a young woman who chooses to live like a plant as a way of rejecting the violence inherent in human nature, and was the unanimous choice of the six judges.

The brilliant shortlist this year was perhaps a good illustration of why translated literary fiction now outsells literary fiction written in English in the UK.

Meanwhile, the longlist for the ordinary (ornery?) UK Man Booker Prize 2016 will be revealed on July 27th, with the shortlist following on September 13th and the winner announced on October 25th.

There are at least nine former winners with novels out this year: Aravind Adiga, Julian Barnes, JM Coetzee, Howard Jacobson, James Kelman, Thomas Keneally, Yann Martel, Ian McEwan, Graham Swift. Yes, they are all men, but never fear, there are plenty of strong female contenders too - please peruse and vote for your favourites on the (far-from-exhaustive) list of eligible titles on goodreads: